Wrigley Field Is Feeling Familiar With Bleachers’ Return

Fans who were early to arrive at the Mets-Cubs game on Monday took in batting practice from refurbished bleachers in left field.CreditCreditCharles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

By Ben Strauss

May 11, 2015

CHICAGO — Adorned in Cubs gear — hat, sweatshirt and jacket — Al Yellon was the first in line nearly four hours before the Wrigley Field bleacher gates opened Monday night. He has sat there regularly since the 1970s, has had season tickets since the early ’90s and rarely misses a game. The bleachers, he said, were like home.

But with the century-old Wrigley undergoing a multiyear renovation, the bleachers were closed for the season’s first month, and Yellon, who writes a blog for SB Nation, was relocated to the left-field grandstand. In response, he and some friends wore buttons they had made reading, “Bleacher Refugees.” So as the gates opened, Yellon began a slow jog up the ramp toward his favorite spot — bleacher seating is first come first served — in the left-field corner. “Welcome back!” an usher cried as he ambled by.

Yellon found his seat, dropped his umbrella to claim it and then looked around and grinned.

“It’s like I never left,” he said. “And it feels good to be back.”

With the Mets in town to play the Cubs, the new Wrigley bleachers opened Monday with fresh concrete, new green paint and, for the first time this season, fans. It is not a complete picture of what the park will look like, as the right-field seats remain a construction site, with concrete, unfinished wooden facades and steel beams. But with the left- and center-field bleachers open for business, and holding about 3,500 fans, Wrigley will start to feel a little more like Wrigley.

“Hometown crowds, as fun as they are, as hectic as they are, it’s been kind of a bummer not to have them,” Cubs outfielder Chris Coghlan said.

These new bleachers have undergone a face-lift, and a few hours before the game, Cubs officials gave members of the news media a tour. Among the changes are party areas for larger groups of fans, including a “well” equipped with stools just beyond the left-field wall near the line and a deck underneath the new video board. The right-field seats, expected to open next month, will also have a new patio area. The new seating options have no name yet, but the Cubs hinted they might soon have corporate sponsors.

Part of the construction included expanding the stadium’s footprint in the outfield. A wraparound concourse provides new space for concessions beyond the bleachers and more room for fans. In the future, new clubhouses will be built, and the bullpens will be shifted under the bleachers. The idea is to keep the old-school charm while increasing the team’s cash flow, as the Red Sox accomplished with a renovation of Fenway Park from 2002 to 2012.

Wrigley’s bleachers were built in 1937, and a young Bill Veeck planted the now famous ivy on the brick walls. The bleachers were expanded in 2006, by about 1,800 seats. The new construction will add 500 seats once the full bleachers are open.

As the Cubs and their owners, the Ricketts family, moved forward with the renovation plans in recent years, the bleachers were a sticking point. Because they are a city landmark, any changes had to maintain their “uninterrupted sweep.” The rooftop owners across the street have also sued to stop the video board and signage that they say will block their views.

The Cubs unveiled another video board Monday in right field that measures 2,250 square feet — not as large as its 3,990-square-foot counterpart in left field. The early reviews of the video board have been favorable; it has been considered a welcome injection of technology into the quaint park, making replays available to fans. Neighbors, though, have complained about the noise, and the Cubs said Monday that they had run sound tests to ameliorate the issues.

Without any fans this season, the outfield has had a desolate feel. Home run balls bounced on concrete slabs. “I guess awkward would probably be the word I would use,” Coghlan said.

Jason Motte, a Cubs relief pitcher and a former St. Louis Cardinal, said: “I’ve been coming here for a while as a visitor, and those fans out there will ride you. So it’ll be good to get that home-field advantage going.”

With a steady drizzle falling for much of the afternoon, the day was reminiscent of another Wrigley milestone: the stadium’s first night game, on Aug. 8, 1988. That game was rained out after a few innings. Yellon was there that night, and he was heartened on Monday as the skies brightened and the sun emerged as game time neared.

“Today feels a little like that night because it’s the same kind of event at the park," he said. “But I like today because it’s much sunnier.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section B, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: Wrigley Feeling Familiar With Bleachers’ Return . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe